Flowers in the Attic: Lifetime to Air New TV Movie Adaptation

by Clarissa / July 25, 2013

The V.C. Andrews novel Flowers in the Attic was published the year that I was born, but I read all of V.C.’s books when I was teenager. Often frightening – and often horrific for many different reasons – her novels still endure to this day.

In fact, Lifetime has announced that they will be airing a new TV movie adaptation of Flowers in the Attic, starring Heather Graham and Ellen Burstyn. This book has endured for several reasons. It’s not bad, per se, but the subject matter is not sunshine and roses. The novel is about four young siblings – two boys and two girls – whose father dies and whose mother brings them to her parents’ mansion when she finds she can no longer support herself. But instead of being welcomed into the family with open arms, the children are hidden away in the attic by their evil grandmother Olivia (Burstyn) and mother Corrine (Graham). There, not seen in public for many years, the children create their own family unit, with the oldest boy and girl taking over as surrogate parents.

This is frightening enough subject matter, but everything takes a turn for the strange when you learn that the two eldest children eventually engage in incest. Flowers in the Attic was originally made into a film in 1987 and it’s curious that Lifetime has chosen to do the same again now. How will they address the incest factor? Or will the TV movie focus more on the children being hidden away and the incest buried? It will definitely be interesting to see how the cable channel tackles this film, even if it still creeps me out to this day.

Clarissa is Managing Editor at ScreenFad and former Managing Editor of TVOvermind. A lover of genre shows (like Supernatural and Arrow) and quality dramas (like The Good Wife and Homeland), Clarissa provides on set and event coverage as well as news, spoilers and reviews for all things TV and movies. Follow her at @clarissa373 or email her at clarissa @ screenfad.com.